The Ashland University women’s soccer team (3-0-2) came away from Thursday’s afternoon match versus a tough University of Charleston (W.V.) (2-1-2) with a 1-1 tie at Ferguson Field.

The Golden Eagles are the third non-conference opponent that AU has faced that participated in the NCAA tournament.

The matchup between the two evenly matched sides was hard fought throughout the majority of the first half as both teams failed to score.

The stellar play of Courtney Barker continued for the Eagles as she displayed many heroic saves throughout the match.

Unfortunately Barker’s recent shutout streak came to an end as a deflection from one of her saves landed at the feet of Charleston’s Rachel Neff for the put back goal in the 54th minute for the 1-0 advantage.

The Lady Eagles would not sit back and accept defeat though as they turned around at that point and shot 15 of their 23 total shots against the Golden Eagles.

In the dwindling moments of the game AU Sophomore Lauren Gokey found the back of the net in the 89th minute giving the Eagles the 1-1 tie and forcing the game to overtime.

“How we were playing it was definitely what we needed to help us get through it and get to the end.” said Gokey  “I just think how the build up to that and how Morgan (Bittengle) looked up and didn’t look to be selfish and looked to play it across because I was open.  That helped a lot and showed that when we work together we can be unstoppable.”

Overtime for the Eagles provided many close moments in which they had opportunities to score but many of the shots came up short as the match ended with the stalemate at 1-1.

The match against Charleston concludes the Lady Eagles non-conference play as they look to begin their GLIAC play against Lake Erie College next Friday at home.

“Charleston is definitely an example of what the GLIAC is going to look like.” said Gokey,  “Every game is going to be a grind and a fight to the end.  It’s about who wants it more.  We take on Lake Erie next week and it will definitely look like this game.”